thebastion | Event: Day 355 [OPEN]

[Colin glanced over at the poor, hapless NPC who had intruded. He had a plan, and he still had it in case Megaera's spell didn't work, but for now, he's not terribly concerned with it.]

The plan is simple right now. We entertain the newcomers. Non-magical pacification. Fun stuff. A party. Bread, circuses, we see to their needs. We let them realize that we really are a safe place to be, so that they don't see the need to fight. We haven't got anything to hide, after all, and we ARE supposed to be a safe place.

If we need to influence them through non-natural means, we've already lost, and this isn't a hard scenario to come out of normally. We just need more hands setting up the party, helping Rin in the kitchen, that sort of thing.

If our traitors keep trying to be traitors, we deal with them separately. If you've got materials in reserve, get ready to put them in play. If not, you just play nice with all the new people. Basically, you keep clear of Zahi because I'll be handling him if push comes to shove.

[He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.]

But I can't keep getting delayed here. Spread the word that we need more able bodies helping the newbies. Spread the word to be cautious. There's definitely a plan in motion and we need to beat it. Now if there's nothing else, excuse me...

[Colin moves for the door at that. He REALLY needs to calm down those people out there.]

Edited 2015-10-14 18:26 (UTC)

[And there's Colin, coming out of the distillery and grabbing a megaphone he'd built some time ago.]

Hello, newcomers! Welcome to the Bastion!

[He hops up near the monument, keeping a bit of distance from Zahi, and he's smiling.]

I'd like to apologize for the delays in getting any news out to you! With your arrival, we've almost quadrupled our population!

First things first, food is coming! It'll be a little while, we've got to cook a LOT to make sure everyone's satisfied! Give us about an hour, and we'll start filling your bellies! If anyone wants alcohol, our Bartender Georges has the spirits to lift your spirits, rest assured!

Next, shelter! This is going to take a little while, but you'll all have homes in short order! To the southwest of our residence, there will be plenty of lodgings! The trick will be sorting out who goes where!

In front of me is our information station, you can call it Shard! You'll recognize it by the hologram of the nice spinning crystal! Over the next couple of hours, if you'd like to queue up, you can tell Shard how many people are in your families slash preferred lodging arrangements, and we'll get a nice housing lottery set up to ensure that everyone gets a place to sleep BY NIGHTFALL. Nobody is going to be sleeping under the stars if they don't want to!

Now, you may have noticed music playing? That's Ibuki, our resident musician! We're setting up a party to celebrate everyone's safe arrival here! If you want to hear a song, feel free to request it from her! She's practically an encyclopedia of music! This evening, we will also be playing several movies! If any of you are from Earth, we will be showing Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on the screen outside the apartments! I'll also be setting up a second screen to show Beauty and the Beast, a charming fairy tale that is suitable for all ages! We're going to make sure that everyone here has a chance to relax after all their trouble!

If anyone is injured or has medical concerns, the hospital is to the northeast of here! That way! We've got a small medical team, but we will see to anyone who needs it!

[Colin points in the direction of the hospital then.]

FINALLY! If anyone has questions, by all means, feel free to ask!

Shard here was designed to answer any basic questions you may have! If Shard CAN'T handle anything, come to the Distillery! You'll recognize it by the foot traffic and the smell of food! There will be people there who can answer your questions, and if they can't, they'll come find me!

Please pardon our dust, as we were not expecting this many people! And please, don't be surprised by the dragon flying around to the east! He'll be bringing by a mammoth in short order that we'll be carving up for piping hot meat for everyone! His name is Paarthurnax, and he'll be more than happy to speak with any of you that want engaging, understanding conversation!

Now, on behalf of the entire Bastion... Welcome! And I hope that you can enjoy your stay!

[He's done speaking. He knows he's not totally done, someone ALWAYS speaks up at this point, but he's made sure that the majority of everyone here has answers and a schedule that they can deal with.]

[He was one of the first to greet everyone, so Paarthurnax probably doesn't really need any introduction.]

[....But maybe it's a good reminder considering that sure is a mammoth being slowly flown over near the distillery that Paarthurnax soon lowers. He steps off of the large corpse and makes his way to an area relatively near the Monument that isn't swarmed by people.]

[It's very hard. There are lots of people.]

I apologize for the wait. They still do not take kindly to being... eaten.

I heard there was need for conversation?

[Colin was yelling after all.]

Just reminding everyone that you're a great friend and a good conversation partner, Paar!

[He beams up at Paarthurnax happily. He absolutely adores you as a friend, Grandpa.]

[Zuko anticipated conflict on returning to the Bastion. Her best case scenario was that somehow they would manage to reach it before the trap was sprung. Her worst case, that the Bastion had already been lost to outsiders, and they would have to find some way to save it. She'd hoped one of those who'd gone ahead might double back to let her know the situation. That hasn't happened.

She definitely did not anticipate several hundred party guests feasting to Ibuki's death metal.

Zuko stares in stunned silence for a good minute, before she pushes on to the first Bastionite she can find ~~preferably not Colin though if it's Colin she'll just sound like she's accusing him~~, and well... she's going to have to borrow another phrase from Rin here.]

What the hell is going on? Who are all these people?

[And how are so many of them enjoying the death metal??]

[Yeah Bon doesn't even know what the fuck either, he's just going to keep Red and Grey close to him and follow Zuko. The clueless ones might as well stick together for now.]

[Could Colin's plan have worked?

Sure, if there weren't people with other plans in the crowd.

For a moment, the crowd not right by the stage (which can't hear anything, since Ibuki's music is hella loud) seem to at least be listening to Colin, even if they're still grumbling over it. But one look at Zahi, and that changes.

Zahi makes a quick gesture with his hands, directly at Colin. It's meaning should be pretty clear, it is a quick swipe with his hand, going from his chin to the side of is face. IE 'cut it out'.

The crowd between Colin and Zahi, it parts. Some move very deliberately, while others seem to notice that the crowd is parting and quickly step in line, lest they be in the way. But regardless, there is now a path between Zahi and Colin, and Zahi is standing there, waiting for Colin to walk to him.

Or anyone else, really. Zahi is focused on Colin at the moment, but if someone else wants to go over and speak to him that is fine too.]

Why Zahi, you wouldn't have a problem with us seeing to the needs of all these tired, hungry people, would you?

[He's smiling. Quite happily, as a matter of fact.]

[For as much as Colin doesn't people... his voice is loud. It carries. It is tuned to be noticed and listened to. He knows how to speak and be heard.]

[Everyone here, EVERYONE HERE, will be able to hear him.]

I mean, surely they've been through enough and they deserve some rest, some succor. Right?

[And Zahi? Yeah, he's not taking a step. You wanna have a talk... he's going to make you speak up, or you're going to come to him.]

[Zahi isn't going anywhere. Instead he will just cup his hand up to his mouth so he can shout back to Colin.]

We could do that. Or we could end it all now, put the final core in, and fix everything that's wrong. Both ways get the people the rest and food they need, except one way isn't delaying anything.

You mean the final core that we've never even agreed how it's going to be used in the first place?

The final core that can rewind time to before the calamity?

Make a whole new world?

Revive the dead?

You want to make a decision that will affect all these people without any of them being the wiser or having any say in their own future?

THAT final core?

That's a fair point. Let's let the people have their say.

[Now he is speaking to everyone in the area.]

Good people! We have a great ability within our grasp. With just a bit more effort, we have a chance to fix our mistakes. We can go back in time and prevent this Calamity from ever happening in the first place, saving countless lives and returning the universe to the way it should be.

Or, we could give up on that chance, and simply live out the rest of our lives here.

What say you? Do you want to change your past, to make a better future for everyone?

[The crowd of NPCs is cheering quite loudly at that point, while Zahi just gives Colin a smug grin. Your plan, it has backfired.]

Ah, so you are aware! We're all agreed then, you want to do everything all over again!

I'll go get the core then!

In the meantime, make sure you've all said your goodbyes, and make sure you're all prepared to live the past year over again! It won't be any easier this time around, but at least now you know that you're going to be thrown into a barren wasteland that wants to kill you! If any of you watched anyone you especially loved die, you might want to start planning how you're going to get over seeing it again!

[Colin turns and starts walking in the direction of his lab. At a sedate pace.]

[Throughout this event, Zulf has been on the tightrope balancing between amused and bemused- two very different states of mind. He hadn't understood why such a party had been going on, but that was the Bastion for you. It's full of strange but well intentioned people. Even Colin of all people.]

[However, when the crowd had started to part- when Zahi had taken the lead- he'd fallen off straight into confusion. He hadn't understood- perhaps hadn't wanted to- what was going on. And when it hits...]

[Hidden in the crowd, nearly indistinguishable from the numerous new faces they have, Zulf looks nothing short like he's been stabbed through the stomach. His face is pale as pure chalk, and he can feel his knees shake.]

[Everyone had known there was at least one suspicious person in the Bastion. A thief. Of course. But this...]

[This is worse than any thief.]

[The thought strikes him, pierces him to the bone, of Was Zayna in on this?

[Was I just being used?]

[Zulf can't stop shaking. It's like the last time around, all over again, only he thinks this is worse than feeling a pure crimson blade slice through his skin. Back then, he'd deserved it. He'd been so arrogant and angry and foolish, he'd deserved nothing less than the Mother's sweet embrace. Raile's back beneath his empty chest had been an offer contrary to everything else.]

[Has he deserved this, too?]

[He thought Zahi was...]

[It's hard to breathe. He wants very much to fall apart and just give up, because this is simply too much and he has had enough. His people are everything, and twice now they've turned on him. First, united. Second, now, so much more personal.]

[He wants to be done.]

[A burning in his chest murmurs Not yet.]

[Zulf isn't sure where he gets any strength from, to pull the shattered shards of his self together, but before he knows it, he's shoving through the crowd to get to the side.]

How do you know!?

[The newcomers to the Bastion haven't gotten a chance to be introduced to Zulf properly, or the depths of his lung capacity. They have that chance now, as his voice cuts through the cheering. He's pushed his way in front of the crowd and come to stand right in the middle of the path between Colin and Zahi. He's still pale, but he's forced his shaking to stop. With his shoulders pushed back and his hands folded neatly in front of himself, one over the other, he looks every bit the proper Ura diplomat he was once upon a time. There's a fury in his dark eyes, but it's not at Zahi. It's at himself.]

[What a fool he is. This must have been obvious to everyone besides himself.]

You speak so confidently on how easy this must be to fix, sir. You speak of time itself, of the most disastrous event to ever strike our world and many others, as though both are merely a wheel to be replaced on a wagon. You talk of it so easily even though you have never done such a thing before in your life!

Everyone! [He addresses the crowd, now.] Instead of a man giving you promises with nothing to back them as truth, listen to someone who has: myself!

This is not the first time a Calamity of this nature has ravaged at least one world. The first, it was Caelondia and the Tazal Terminals, and only four ever made it to this Bastion. Back then, with struggle, the Monument was brought to full power and we were given that choice! Restoring all that had been lost was a temptation no one could resist. Who wouldn't want to bring back so many lives lost? Lovers, family, friends, so many more- just like all of you now, we had lost so much and wanted to see it again. We would have given anything to stop another Calamity! We tried! Yet look around you. What do you think happened?

Some of you are Caels, others Ura. You know what Caelondia was like before this all happened: an enormous city guarded by walls which could not be pierced, with a military force so large it had to be divided into nine different groups. Trying to do something upfront would just create another Point Lemaign War, would cause just as much suffering and start another Calamity all over again. For you others, think on that information, and think of how useless you would be in your home away from doing any sort of help!

Perhaps you think, in contrast, something more subtle and long term could be te solution. Consider this: the Mancers who started the Calamity both times were such a paranoid and panicked lot that they only needed the slightest provocation to press the button that's twice now destroyed the lives of so many! The first Calamity happened because of a teenage girl sneaking out with a boyfriend. Anything at all could have them push that button, whether it is based in fact or not!

Would any of you attempt to fight an earthquake? Go hand to hand with a tsunami? No!

Sometimes, nothing can be fixed. Sometimes all we can do is move forward. There is nothing wrong with that!

None of us need to play as though we are better than Gods, messing with a past that may only become worse with our meddling, in order to make a better future! You can do that here, with the Bastion as it is! We can do it together, and only then when will we be able to move past the wounds that the Calamity bore onto us.

[She doesn't have the most complete grasp of what's going on, but she can smell the emotion in the air - the tension. Something's going to break soon.]

[And she's subtly moving closer to Ibuki, her senses and all the rest of her going on higher alert. If anything's set to go foul, her friend isn't going to be a part of it.]

[What are you all doing?]

[There's a quiet presence, moving through the crowd. He's aware that being a talking hawk won't endear him to a lot of people, but he has to say something. He can't just give up on his planet, on every planet. He pushes his way through the crowd, but when he speaks to Zulf it's with a soft voice, not an angry one.]

I understand that you went back. That you tried and it happened again. But... will it happen again? Changing a tiny thing can change a lot. And you're asking all of us to give up on all of our worlds.

... I'm not saying you're wrong. But I... I don't know if you realize what you're asking of everyone...

[Zulf just looks exhausted when Tobias speaks up.]

I'm well aware of what I'm asking. What tiny thing do you think could change that would stop this from happening all over again? From making this just another loop of tragedy and disaster?

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2/2 tl;dr you stop that

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